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Title: Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 (History of Europe (St Martins Pr)(Paper)) by Roger Collins ISBN: 0-312-21886-9 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Mary, Mary, quite contrary...
Comment: In writing an overall account of history such as this, what matters is the capacity for synthesis and re-interpretation, and Roger Collins certainly has both. But he also has the faults of his virtues. He manages to cover all important features of the enormous period under observation; he is familiar with modern scholarship; he is an excellent writer; and he is constantly questioning his material and searching for new interpretation. On a number of issues, his views are not only interesting but revelatory; take for instance his account of the barbarity and self-serving mendacity of Charles Martel, or of the real role of Aetius in the end of the Western Empire. However, his constant questioning of the issues can take the form of being contrary for its own sake; and some of his preconceptions are unacceptable. In particular, he pushes the issue of Roman influence on the conquering Germanic war bands so far that, in effect, any notion of Teutonic cultural autonomy vanishes into a phantom, and we are left wondering why, if everything of importance from monarchy to law-codes had been borrowed by the Teutons from the Romans, the political structures of the Dark and Middle Ages are so different from the Roman one - not only in scale, but in kind. This is a fine and thoughtful account of a large area of our history, but I would not take it without taking in some contrary views as a balance.
Rating: 4
Summary: dense but illuminating
Comment: This is a subject that is almost impossible to write about coherently. Collins has moments where he uses a difficult style that can seem impenetrable on a first reading (perhaps this is an american point-of-view). But often on a second reading, his points become exceptionally clear and well grounded. Not being an expert, though, I sometimes wonder if he's not a bit too sure of his analyses. Keeping that in mind, this is still a good, strong book with a great deal of historiographical landmarks to support his major premises.
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Title: Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians by J. B. Bury, F. J. C. Hearnshaw ISBN: 0393003884 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World by Patrick J. Geary ISBN: 0195044584 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000 (Short Oxford History of Europe) by Rosamond McKitterick ISBN: 0198731728 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Carolingians : A Family Who Forged Europe by Pierre Riché, Michael Idomir Allen ISBN: 0812213424 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.10 |
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Title: Gregory of Tours: The History of the Franks by Lewis Thorpe, Gregory of Tours, Gregory ISBN: 0140442952 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: April, 1983 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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